Out from the ocean arises a great beast, its leonine orange face contrasting with its green, heavily muscled tauric body. As it roars, its fiery mane rises up into the air like a garden of spikes. Lightning strikes the side of its horns, though the creature doesn't seem to notice.

It is said that, many hundreds of years ago, there was a village that was attacked annually by a great beast. This monster, a chimerical creature with the worst features of ox and lion, was said to rise out of the seas and attack the villagers who lived in the mountain. There was nothing they could do to stop its rampage, for its very presence sent even the stoutest of warriors running back from whence they came. The beast would savagely assault men and women in the very hearts of their villages, only to disappear at the end of each New Year. The creature would hibernate until the next New Year, where the cycle would begin all over again.

This continued for many a year, until a few brave heroes decided that enough was enough. Together, they rallied themselves and the rest of the village in order to fight back against the seemingly unstoppable foe. They gathered gongs and explosives, and as the beast came forward towards the mountains they unleashed their attacks. The monster, which seemed to feed off of the fear that it usually created, was distraught to find that these tiny people would act so courageously against it. Their red weapons hurt the monster, and their loud noises frightened it. It lashed out, before trying to flee back into the water from whence it came. The creature was ultimately killed before it could flee, however, and the villagers were quite happy to be rid of the Nián Sḥu.

Yearly celebrations are still held in honor of the creature's defeat, with people using gongs and firecrackers and dressing in red. There are those that say that the beast was not one of a kind, though; these vigilant souls are convinced that there are other nián sḥu living deep under the ocean. The appearance of just one, it is said, would be enough to throw civilization into chaos. Whether there are any more remains to be seen.

Combat
It is said that when the nián sḥu attacked the village, it drank from the fears of the people and consumed their bodies. Entire squads of warriors would end up in its gullet, where they died if they were not dead already. It was said that it was nigh impossible to sneak up on the beast, but ultimately they were able to defeat it with red weapons and sounds that shattered its eardrums.

Amphibious (Ex): Nián Sḥu can breathe both air and water.

Blindsense (Ex): A nián sḥu can locate creatures within 120 feet by nonvisual means (mostly hearing and scent, but also by noticing vibration and other environmental clues). Opponents the nián sḥu can’t actually see still have total concealment against it.

Damage Reduction: Nián Sḥu have near-impenetrable armor, but for reasons unknown these creatures have a strange aversion to the color red. Weapons that are dipped in red powder or covered in red paint or dried blood bypass this damage reduction.

Fear of Sound: Every time a nián sḥu suffers more than 30 points of sonic damage in a single strike, the nián sḥu must make a DC 18 Will save, or become shaken for 3d4 rounds. If a nián sḥu suffers more than 50 points of sonic damage in a single hit, the creature must make a DC 20 save or become frightened for 2d6 rounds. Should the nián sḥu take more than 100 points of sonic damage, the creature is panicked for a full minute and will attempt to flee to the nearest large body of water as quickly as possible.

Frightful Presence (Su): A nián sḥu can inspire terror by charging or attacking. Affected creatures must succeed on a DC 26 Will save or become shaken, remaining in that condition as long as they remain with 60 feet of the nián sḥu. The save DC is Charisma-based. Every time another creature is affected by this ability, the nián sḥu gains a number of bonus hit points equal to one-half the victim's total number of HD (minimum 1).

Swallow Whole (Ex): A nián sḥu can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of up to two sizes smaller by making a successful grapple check. The swallowed creature takes 4d10+15 points of bludgeoning damage and 12 points of acid damage per round from the nián sḥu’s gizzard. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by using a light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 40 points of damage to the gizzard (AC 15). Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A Huge nián sḥu’s gizzard can hold 2 Medium, 8 Small, 32 Tiny, or 128 Diminutive or smaller opponents.

Debihuman

2014-01-30, 03:23 AM

I know in 3.5 monster attacks are full strength damage and half damage for natural attacks. They only use 1.5xStr for sole natural attacks. Is it different for Pathfinder?

Gore should be followed by an "or" it seems in the full attack line. It gets 1.5 damage so it should be it's only attack, secondary attacks stay secondary even when used as primary attacks and should still be 1/2 Str. Those should be +5 damage not +10 unless I am missing something.

If it can gore and use its other attacks (judging by the picture, it really can't) then the primary attack gore needs to be +10 damage not +15 and the secondary attacks need to be +5.

Debby

LOTRfan

2014-01-30, 03:29 AM

That's actually a good question; I think the rules for natural weapons damage is the same for both rulesets. And even if it isn't, this is meant to be 3.5 so I'll change it anyway.

Debihuman

2014-01-30, 03:35 AM

That's actually a good question; I think the rules for natural weapons damage is the same for both rulesets. And even if it isn't, this is meant to be 3.5 so I'll change it anyway.

Yes. When I was fixing it I took a look at the elephant statblock (which also has a gore attack separate from a primary slam attack). In your opinion, should I change the bite to a secondary attack like the claws?

EDIT: If it's irregular, how about I just make it a secondary instead? I'll go do that now.

Debihuman

2014-01-30, 03:53 AM

The elephant has a mistake in it.

A creature can use one of its secondary natural weapons when making an attack action, but if it does it takes an attack penalty, as noted in the Full Attack section below.

WotC's material was badly edited. It's one of the reasons that people can't follow the rules.

Debby

LOTRfan

2014-01-30, 03:58 AM

That's a shame; one would expect that since they already incorporated the errata into the SRD, there wouldn't be as many mistakes.

Well, that is fixed now, with the gore being the primary weapon. Do you see anything else that needs fixing?

Debihuman

2014-01-30, 04:29 AM

Technically the Gore should come first in the Full attack line. This is why I want to kick the people at WotC for all their stupid mistakes. They wrote the darn rules and couldn't follow them!

Full Attack
This line shows all the physical attacks the creature makes when it uses a full-round action to make a full attack. It gives the number of attacks along with the weapon, attack bonus, and form of attack (melee or ranged). The first entry is for the creature’s primary weapon, with an attack bonus including modifications for size and Strength (for melee attacks) or Dexterity (for ranged attacks). A creature with the Weapon Finesse feat can use its Dexterity modifier on melee attacks. The remaining weapons are secondary, and attacks with them are made with a -5 penalty to the attack roll, no matter how many there are. Creatures with the Multiattack feat take only a -2 penalty on secondary attacks. The damage that each attack deals is noted parenthetically. Damage from an attack is always at least 1 point, even if a subtraction from a die roll reduces the result to 0 or lower....